7:59 am

Fri November 22, 2013

This week's show features something you will very rarely hear from us: bleeping! By which I mean: actual, literal bleeps. Because we're kicking things off with a discussion of profanity, in movies including Anchorman and Die Hard, and in TV shows on cable and broadcast. We talk about the fake swearing of Battlestar Galactica and Firefly, the "lazy mind" argument, the classics created by dubbing out the profanity in movies for TV, and the differences between the bad words and the really bad words, as Neda Ulaby discussed on the radio recently.

From there, we move on to the topic of obsolete technology and other things that make us feel like a story could no longer happen in the same way. (Please check out the :53 mark in this trailer for one of the visual references.) The Jetsons, Alfred Hitchcock, Real Steel ... what else can you ask for?

Stephen is happy about the Canadian version of one of his favorite reality shows, and he's also happy about a very serious movie that he found very moving. Trey is happy about an extension of an existing geekdom of his, as well as a documentary his friends are terribly excited about. Glen is happy about listening in to a show that's winding down. I am being made happy by a recent (though no longer the most recent!) episode of the great and good Judge John Hodgman podcast. And I'm also absolutely thrilled about a little documentary that's made it to iTunes and a fine new special.